Predator: Badlands

Pop Culture Happy Hour

NPR

Film Reviews, Entertainment News, Tv Reviews, News, Arts, After Shows, Tv & Film, Books, Music, Music Commentary

4.5 • 11.6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 November 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Predator: Badlands is the latest film about an alien race that hunts things using all sorts of space-gadgets. It’s told from the Predator’s perspective. He’s an outcast sent to a hostile planet to hunt down a deadly monster to prove his worth to his people – with Elle Fanning joining as an unlikely ally. It’s from the same team that made Prey. And both Predator movies are much better than they had any right to be.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Is it easier for us to find the positives in something we considered bad or to narrow down the positives of something we loved?
0:07.8	I'm Glenn Weldon on the latest pop culture happy hour plus episode, Aish and I discuss the challenges of criticism.
0:14.0	You can listen to all our plus bonus episodes and support our work by signing up for pop culture happy hour plus at plus.npr.org slash happy.
0:27.3	Predator Badlands is the latest iteration of the franchise about an alien race that hunts
0:31.9	things using all sorts of space gadgets. It's from the same team that made 2022's prey,
0:37.1	which was, like this movie, a much better predator movie than it had any right to be. This time out we're getting the story from the Predator's perspective, an outcast sent to a hostile planet to hunt down a deadly monster to prove his worth to his people. El Fanning shows up as an unlikely ally. I am Glenn Weldon, and today we're talking
0:55.4	about Predator Badlands on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR.
1:03.9	Joining me today is Ronald Young Jr. He's the host of the film and television review
1:08.3	podcast Leaving the Theater. Hello, Ronald. Hello, Glenn.
1:12.8	Also with us is writer Chris Klemick always brings a bit. Hey, Chris. If it bleeds, we can kill it,
1:17.9	Glenn. Let's do this. We go. In Predator Badlands, deck, a predator who is kind of the runt of
1:24.7	his litter, goes to the deadly planet of Gena to hunt down a hideous monster because he's determined to prove to his clan that he's got what it takes to really belong to the species of intergalactic badasses that audiences first met back in a 1987 Schwarzenegger movie.
1:40.7	In sequels and novels, comics and video games, various predators have faced off against
1:44.9	everything from aliens to Batman to recently, a very resourceful young Comanche woman in
1:50.9	2022's prey. This predator, played by Demetrius Schuster Colomitongi, is aided by the top
1:58.2	half of an abandoned robot named Thea, played by El Fennig.
2:01.8	All that, plus lots of lore about the Predators and their whole deal.
2:06.2	It's in theaters now.
2:07.6	Ronald Young Jr. kick us off.
2:09.8	What'd you think?
2:10.5	Man, I really enjoyed this movie, and I did not expect to.
2:13.5	I was a big fan of 2022's Prey.
	...

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